Light on the Lessons s3

Light on the Lessons

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Reformation Sunday/Day, Cycle ABC, October 29/31, 2017

Leader Guidance

Materials Needed

+ Bibles for everyone (variety of translations often useful)

+ Lectionary sheets (very convenient if you use them in worship)

+ Chalkboard, newsprint, overhead, or another means for displaying information and recording thoughts.

+ Basic reference books for use as needed: Bible dictionary, Bible atlas, concordance, a one-volume Bible commentary

I Getting Started

Have the lessons read aloud while others follow the text. After these are shared, offer a prayer: “Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, heavenly Father, that we may remain steady and confident surrounded by your grace and truth. Amen.” Then turn to the initial discussion starters.

1. We need to distinguish how we are saved from what we do after we are saved. Salvation, our entry into God’s family, comes solely by grace. Once within that family, however, we mature through spiritual disciplines. Invite participants to share spiritual exercises they find enriching.

2. It seems part of our sinful, prideful nature that we find it difficult to accept our total dependency upon God for our salvation. Even the faith by which we trust in God’s gift comes to us as a gift of grace. When we know the truth that we are justified by God’s grace through Christ, and it comes as a complete gift, we cannot deny that truth by tinkering around with requirement that might please people.

3. This is an interesting question. It is true for many people, yet why? If God forgives our sins, then we surely need not flog ourselves for them. We are, in Luther’s phrase, at the same time sinners and saints. The sinner part seems to obstruct our full appreciation of our God-given sainthood.

4. Responses will vary. Freedom in Christ includes being free to serve and love our neighbor. I also means freedom from anxiety, alienation, and guilt. It means we can feel at-one with the cosmos.

II Check the Texts

1. Jeremiah 31:31-34

A. Jeremiah did not foresee the new covenant Jesus established at the Last Supper, Matthew 26:26-29 and parallels. He thought of a renewal of spirit within Israel where people would obey the covenant with heartfelt joy rather than like a meaningless ritual.

B. Ezekiel, speaking to the exiles, promised the same renewal of spirit and faith when they returned to their land.

C. In Jeremiah’s view, his contemporaries were only going through the motions of religion, keeping the form without the vital spirit. He envisioned the day when Israel would fulfill God’s law with spontaneous, inner joy. Talk about religion as form and religion as heart-felt commitment in our own day. Part of spiritual discipline is to make faith and joy central to our lives.

2. Romans 3:19-28

A. God’s law describes the level of behavior that God expects in response to his love, and we see clearly how far we fall short. Since we cannot keep the law as God intends, the law cannot be our path to a restored relationship with God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus underscores the need for inner response to the law, much as Jeremiah called for (Matthew 5:17-48 is an example).

B. The verse suggests that through Jesus Christ believers receive the righteousness of God. We are made righteous not for what we do but for the sake of Jesus.

C. The “bad news” is that we are all sinners; the “good news” is our justification by grace.

D. The verse suggest that God in the past somehow overlooked our sins, but now in Christ God has taken decisive action to heal the breach created by sin.

3. John 8:31-36

A. “Believed in” implies that his hearers had committed to him as disciples. “Believed” suggests that the hearers were those who thought him trustworthy but were not yet committed followers.

B. Except for a brief period under the Maccabees (140-63 B.C.), the Jews had spent the previous several centuries under foreign domination. Still, they felt free because in the law they perceived they had access to the mind of God. Theirs was a sense of spiritual freedom.

C. Romans 3:23 compares to verse 34.

III What Does It All Mean?

1. The new covenant and the grace of God are two common threads.

2. Responses will vary. Our freedom is spiritual, an inner freedom brought about by faith in God grace. We are fee to be at home with God.

3. A sincere faith is clearly to be preferred over a hypocritical faith. Still, we cannot measure faith. There is no “minimum faith” required by God. Faith (trust) that relies on God rather than self for salvation is the key. That is why we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior (see Romans 10:5-13).

4. Sin describes our alienation from God. On the human level, we are capable of decent acts, measured by human standards. While our goodness will not suffice to make us acceptable to God, it will make us acceptable to our peers. Sin that totally alienates us from God has not completely destroyed our capacity for doing good on the human level. We re capable of what Luther termed “civic righteousness.”.

5. We come into the family of God by grace, given as a free gift which we could never earn nor deserve. Once in the family, however, we profit from exhortation, discipline, and structure. We learn “family values.”

6. This paradox of Christian liberty reminds us that our freedom finds it fulfillment not in individualistic, self-centered freedom, but rather in loving relationships of service. Christ sets us free from selfishness and ego needs and thus empowers us to serve others in love.

IV Into the Week

Save time to discuss briefly items 1 and 2.